New Year's Resolutions and the Mambo

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Popular culture would have us believe that on January 1, 1950, everyone in America under 30 awakened to discover rocket-inspired tailfins having sprouted on their cars, sheath dresses in their closets, and ‘rock and roll’ records on every turntable.  Well, um… No.  Remember, both the “Jets” and the “Sharks” were equally adept at dancing Mambo, the weapon of choice for their teen dance floor duel in the Broadway musical “West Side Story,” set in mid-1950’s New York City (watch it at the end of this article).  This vision of the 1950’s is every bit as valid as the one portrayed in the Milwaukee of “Happy Days” - and musica Latina was fully part of the scene.

Today’s listeners often mis-categorize Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, Pachanga and other Latin music genres as having been music for ‘older folks’, merely because they were ‘vintage’ by the time we came along.  But while they did have a cross-generational appeal, when they were new there was nothing more modern or hip.  Even looking at the old record covers is deceiving.  We now perceive the models in evening gowns and elaborate make-up as being 'older', forgetting that the style of the day was for women to look purposely mature and sophisticated (not the natural, perpetual-waif look prized today).  The 18 year old WWII Army sergeant of 1945 was a still ‘young’ 27 year old in 1954 - the year of the Mambo’s maximum impact on U.S. popular culture.  That individual, weaned on Swing, was far more likely to be inclined towards the sound of jazz-inflected, big band Mambo than rock and roll.  My father, a ‘Class of 1948’ Bebopper, played saxophone throughout northern New Jersey in the first band of Charlie Persip (later Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer).  For a young, urban man of the late-1940’s, R&B and rock & roll were alright - for children and ‘hicks’(!)  “Cool” was all about ‘Bird’, ‘Diz’ and “The Divine One,” Sarah Vaughn…, AND Tito Puente, Machito and Graciela! 

This New Year’s Eve, I wouldn’t imagine that many of you will throw away your iPhone or X-Box because “it’s so 2011.”  Life and culture aren’t that ‘cut and dry.’  Time tends to create exaggerated line of demarcation between decades that, then as now, flowed seamlessly from one to another with change coming incrementally.  The mass-market “American Graffiti” and “Grease” vision of the 1950’s shows the decade from only one point of view, with the cultural touchstones of an entire decade tied into a single, convenient bow of nostalgia.  But untie that bow, and that same ribbon – stretched full and straight - allows us to see the continuity between tradition and the future.  That’s real cause for celebration!

Happy Holidays and a Bountiful New Year from Mambo-phoniC!